Pakistan approaches OIC against Dutch blasphemous cartoon contest

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has approached the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to lodge a protest against a cartoon competition in the Netherlands suggested by anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders.

“Foreign Minister Abdullah Haroon has written a letter to the OIC Secretary-General asking for collective action to register a protest of OIC countries with the Dutch authorities,” the Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson said at a weekly press briefing.

The opposition’s leading Freedom Party of Geert Wilders is planning to hold the blasphemous competition in the party’s secure offices in the Dutch Parliament.

The spokesperson has assured that Pakistan would work closely with all OIC member states to raise the issue with the Dutch government.

He said that Pakistan has called in the Dutch ambassador and the EU envoy, who represents 28 European countries, to register the protest.

“We have conveyed our condemnation of this deliberate attempt to vilify Islam. Such incidents should not go unpunished as they intentionally provoke Muslim community across the world and incite intolerance and violence,” he said.